[Books] Malazan Book of the Fallen - Page 6

If I remember my reading correctly, the warrens are actually similar to the veins of K'rul. Some dragons are also representations of different warrens

1) Cadre = a group of magii?

2) During chapter 2 (book one), Tattersail and a man named Hairlock are in a battlefield of some sort attacking a fortress or a necropolis of some sort? Is hairlock like a half-man (he has no legs, it was said) but then during the fight with the 3 other High Mage's he get's cut in half again?

3) Don't spoil it for me, but I'm confused between the difference of Caldan Brood, and this Anomander Rake. Who exactly is the lord of the necropolis/fortress in #3?

4) Is the First Fist Dejuk Onearm 50? or 79? 79 in Fantasy years seems a bit too old.

1) This is never laid out clearly. There are many explanations given, none of them are complete. Just like our understanding of sciences is never complete, neither is the characters' understanding of warrens. The most succinct but helpful explanation I can give without spoiling future revelations is that a warren is like a nexus of power aligned with some force or idea (light, fire, illusions, death, etc). Mages draw their power from one or more of these warrens. Yes, one of the powers you can use a warren for is to travel through it (it manifests as a physical world, it's possible for people to live within warrens).

2) Yes, Malazan armies have mage cadres, which are groups of mid-level mages who work together to provide the army with magic capabilities. Mages in the mage cadre are separate from High Mages like Tayschrenn, who are very powerful, much more rare, and tend to work alone, and are also separate from squad mages like Quick Ben who work within a single squad of marines as a unit.

3) The first scene with Tattersail and Hairlock takes place after the attack on the flying fortress of Moon's Spawn. Hairlock is just a normal human, he is cut in half during the flashback to the battle scene, which is why he has no legs during the first scene you meet him in.

4) They are completely different people, but they are allies in this war. Caladan Brood is the warlord leading an army far to north of Pale (the scene of the battle against Moon's Spawn). Anomander Rake is the lord of Moon's Spawn, who singlehandedly fights against the Malazan army at Pale.

5) I can't remember Dujek's age, but humans in Malazan live longer than humans in our world. IIRC it has something to do with warrens.

Who exactly was fighting the group of the 3 High Mages, Tayschrenn, Tattersail, Hairlock. and Calot? Was it a conjured monster or was it who they believed was a Tiste Andii?

Well, things like this are actually plot features. Part of the confusion arises from the fact that the point-of-view characters are mostly ground-level people who don't always know everything that's going on. The battle was, at least according to appearances, the Malazan army (in particular the mages that you listed) against Anomander Rake (ruler of the Tiste Andii). Like you said, at one point a creature is magically summoned and attacks the Malazan High Mages. The obvious assumption would be that Anomander Rake must have summoned it to help him. However, as Hairlock has already hinted at that point, he believes that Tayschrenn betrayed the others and used the confusion of the battle to kill the other Malazan mages for mysterious, nefarious reasons. Tattersail, through whose eyes we see this part of the story, is torn on whether or not she believes this.